When the term 'America' is used in a conversation or an article, most of us think of a country with borders.
We think of the United States of America and the familiar outline from pictures and puzzles that also include
Alaska and Hawaii. Some companies know that 'made in America' or 'made in USA' is a selling point to their
customers. But very few consumers know that it IS legal to label products made in far away places (called commonwealths)
as made in America! Oh, yes it is, and here is a personal example we recently investigated here at thinkscapes.com:
Not far from the country of Japan, there is a chain of islands called the Northern Marianas Islands. It is designated as
a commonwealth of the United States of America. (Virginia calls itself a commonwealth, also.) Here's our example:
I was in an upscale clothing shop that has over a thousand stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. I was considering a
section of nice t-shirts in various colors and took a look at the neck tag to see where they were manufactured. It said
'Made in Northern Mariana Islands (USA).' Yes, I was confused also. I now needed one of these shirts as an example of
what was going on in labelling. I still have it and don't plan to wear it, but it is from that shirt we scanned the label you see
by clicking
here.
What's so wrong with that? There are dozens of sweatshops on the Northern Marianas Islands.
Read about them on these websites ...Then buy a bumpersticker and do one thing about one problem. It's an idea.